This invention was the subject matter of Document Disclosure Program Registration No. 247,459, which was filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Mar. 12, 1990.
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,112,576; 3,533,180; 4,447,980; and 4,709,579; the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse spinner blade arrangements used to entice fish to strike at a fishing lure.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, these patented constructions have been uniformly deficient in their failure to recognize the fact that there are many instances wherein a fisherman desires to have the spinner blade rotating in a generally vertical plane, as opposed to the substantially horizontal plane that activates virtually all spinner blade constructions when the lure is being retrieved over open water.
Examples of situations when vertical plane rotations of the spinner blade would be desirable include, but are not limited to, ice fishing, jigging over brush piles and along drop-offs and ledges, as well as during the countdown method of fishing wherein the cast lure is allowed to sink for a predetermined period of time to reach a certain depth before the lure is retrieved in the normal manner along a generally horizontal plane.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among fishermen for a spinner arrangement that is specifically designed to produce rotation of the spinner element as the arrangement either sinks downwardly, or is retrieved upwardly in a generally vertical plane, while the attached lure body remains in a generally horizontal disposition, and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.